Treating Coronavirus: Zydus explores the biologicals route with long-acting Interferon alpha-2b
Ahmedabad: Zydus Cadila has announced that its biological therapy Pegylated Interferon alpha-2b, 'PegiHepTM' can emerge as one of the pathways to treat COVID 19. The treatment has emerged after the publication of two non-peer reviewed research articles at bioRxiv and medRxiv, the COVID-19 pre-print servers hosted by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
The first one by the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, showed evidence of a direct anti-viral effect of Interferon-alpha against novel Coronavirus in vitro. The study demonstrated around 10,000 fold reduction in virus titre in cells that were pre-treated with Interferon alpha 48 hours earlier. The second by a group of universities in China, Australia and Canada retrospectively analysed 77 moderate COVID-19 subjects in Wuhan and observed that those who received Interferon alpha-2b showed a significant reduction in the duration of virus shedding period and even in levels of the inflammatory cytokine, IL-6.
This suggests that if a long-acting molecule like Pegylated Interferon-alpha is given early on in the infection, the patient suffering from COVID 19 will have a significant benefit as the viral load is reduced, lesser IL-6 is produced and virus eliminating specific immune response is generated.
When the human body contracts an infection due to a viral attack, it produces a group of molecules called Type 1 interferons as the first line of defence. Interferon-alpha is one such Type 1 Interferon molecule, that not only slows down the viral replication but also helps activate the two arms of our immune system – Innate, for the immediate killing of the virus and Adaptive, for long-lasting immunity.
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